Elite Fans Wanted…

The first draft of THE RIPPER will be finished by Wednesday of this week, and I’m very pleased with it. Since this book is not going to be published through a major New York house (as you’ll recall, I walked away from a deal with St. Martin’s because the numbers weren’t good enough to justify publishing with them) I want to make sure that it still goes through a bit of a vetting process prior to it being released as an ebook in January.

To that end, I’m looking for a handful of elite fans to be the first to read THE RIPPER and let me know what you think. I’m looking specifically for people who have read all of the previous novels in the series, and hopefully all of the novellas and short stories as well. I’m also looking for people who aren’t afraid to let me know their honest opinion, provided they do more than say, “it sucks,” or “it rocks.” What I’m looking for is something along the lines of, “Why in chapter two does Herbie insist on a bizarre food fetish scene when El Capitan is outfitting the Sandinistas with the latest phaser technology? Wouldn’t it be more important to show Herbie using the yogurt cannon to neutralize the phaser before the food fetish scene?”

You get the idea.

I’m hoping to get about a half dozen eager folks who can read this first draft quickly and get it back to me within a matter of weeks with your notes. I need to edit this in December and get it ready for a January release. Why January? Because the ever-awesome Misty Rayburn is dedicating the entire month of January to Lawson. Throughout the month, she’ll be highlighting the entire series from start to where it’s at right now. And I want THE RIPPER ready to debut when all that publicity is churning. It’s a bit of a squeeze, but I’m sure it can be done.

Haven’t read the series yet, but want to participate? Go and get the books and start reading!

Okay, so if you’d like to be one of the elite fans who gets to read THE RIPPER first, simply drop me a line at jonfmerz AT verizon DOT net and let me know. I might ask a question or two to verify that you’ve read all the books, so watch out for a pop quiz!